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With compliments of Doctor Robert Fletcher. 


PAUL BROCA 

AND THE FRENCH SCHOOL OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 

BY 


ROBERT FLETCHER. 






SATURDAY LECTURES. 


tSTo. 6. 


PAUL BRO£A 

AND THE FRENCH SCHOOL OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 

A LECTURE 

Delivered in the National Museum, Washington, I), C., 

APRIL 15, 1882, 

—BY— 

y 

ROBERT FLETCHER. 


Published and Sold by JUDD & DETWEILER. Price io cts. 


This Series of Lectures will he issued in one complete volume when 
they are all delivered. Price 75 cents. Orders should he sent 
in at once to the publishers, Judd & Detweiler. 


COPYRIGHT SECURED. 


















THE SATURDAY LECTURES. 


PROGRAM. 


March 11.—Prof. Theo. Gill, 

Scientific and Popular Views of Nature Contrasted. 

March 18.—Prof. Otis T. Mason, 


What is Anthropology ? 

March 25.—Prof. J. W. Chickering, Jr., 

Contrasts of the Appalachian Mountains. 

April 1.—Major J. W. Powell, 


Outlines of Sociology. 


April 8. —Prof. C. V. Riley, 

Little Known Facts about Well Known Animals. 


April 15.—Dr. Robert Fletcher, 

Paul Broca and the French School of Anthropology. 

April 22. —Prof. William H. Dall, 

Deep-Sea Exploration. 


April 29. —Dr. Swan M. Burnett, 


How we See. 




LECTURE. 


Ladies and Gentlemen : 

You have heard a great deal in these latter days of the 
Science of Anthropology, and while many of you, doubtless, 
have been following its investigations and discoveries with 
interest and profit, others will be prompted to inquire: What 
is Anthropology, and when, and by whom, was it discovered 
or invented? To the first part of the question it is un¬ 
necessary for me to reply, as Professor Mason, in the second 
lecture of this course, gave a lucid exposition of what 
constitutes the science in question; but the reason of its 
existence, and the circumstances attending its establishment 
and recognition in the scientific world, it is the purpose of 
this lecture concisely to explain. 

Taking a comprehensive view of the subject, it would be 
correct to say that anthropology has existed since the earliest 
days of human civilization. Classical literature shows 
us Strabo and the geographers describing races—ethnog¬ 
raphers ; Galen and his followers as anatomists and physi¬ 
cians—biologists, as we should call them now; and Plato 
and the metaphysicians as psychologists. We go back to 
Justinian for the first records of an important branch of 
sociology, the origin of law, and the technologist cannot 
afford to overlook Vitruvius and Vegetius in tracing out 
the early history of tools, arms and weapons. But it is not 
with the separate sciences which together form what we now 
call anthropology, tempting as the subject is, that we have 
to do, for the theme is much too vast for the time at our 
disposal. 

I must remind you that the term itself has been used 
with very different meanings by the theologian, the anato¬ 
mist, and physician. “ Journals of Anthropology,” of which 
there were many in Germany a hundred years ago, were 
mostly devoted to medicine and surgery. Its use in its 
present comprehensive sense arose with the establishment 



4 


SAT UK D A Y LECTU RES. 


of the Paris Society of Anthropology, about twenty-five 
years ago, and its fitness for the purpose was so manifest 
that it has superseded to a great extent the narrower titles 
of ethnology and archaeology. At the present day there are 
Societies of Anthropology in nearly all the capital cities of 
the world. They were all founded, more or less, upon the 
model of the Paris society, which is acknowledged as the 
parent from which this flourishing progeny has sprung. 

It will be more convenient for our purpose to begin with 
a description of these associations as they now exist, and 
then, in a brief biography of the eminent Frenchman who 
founded the Paris society, show you in what manner the 
science of anthropology received its birth and baptism. 

The first French Society which made the study of man¬ 
kind the especial object of its enquiries, was founded in 
Paris in the year 1800, and was known as La societe des 
observateurs de Vhomme —the Society of Observers of Man. 
From their programme, and from the meagre reports of 
their transactions which appeared from time to time in the 
Magasin encyclopedique , it is evident that the natural history 
of man chiefly occupied their attention. In 1803, this 
association was united with The Philanthropic Society (La 
societe philanthropique) and lost its scientific identity. In 
1838, there was founded in London, under the presidency of 
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, the leader of the party advo¬ 
cating the abolition of slavery in British dominions, a Society 
for the Protection of the Aborigines. The object of this 
association was political and not scientific, but one of its 
members, a Mr. Hodgkin, visited Paris a year later for the 
purpose of establishing a French society on the same basis, 
and came into communication with many eminent men, 
among whom was the celebrated naturalist, William 
Edwards. The attempt to found a French abolition society 
failed, but the interest excited in the cognate subject of race 
led Edwards and his friends to establish the Ethnological 

O 

Society of Paris, (a,) whose existence was officially authorized 
by the Minister of the Interior, in August, 1839. This 
society published two volumes of memoirs, and one, of its 


PAUL BROCA. 


D 


transactions. The work it achieved was excellent in kind, 
but its membership was never large, and no great degree 
of zeal was evinced by those belonging to it. In 1842, the 
American Ethnological Society ( b) was founded by Albert 
Gallatin, and in 1844, the Ethnological Society of London (c) 
was established, both after the model of the French Society. 

Possessing no museum for the accumulation of specimens, 
the Ethnological Society of Paris devoted itself mainly to 
the investigation of certain races, their habits and customs. 
Unfortunately, too, for its prosperity, it took up with great 
heat the subject of slavery, which was being fiercely debated 
in France in the years 1847-8. The society was interested 
only in the question of race, and of the single or multiple 
origin of mankind, but an absurd belief became general 
that ethnology was, in some mysterious manner, another 
name for abolitionism, and this prejudice survived to be an 
obstacle in the establishment of the Anthropological Society, 
ten years later. 

What the circumstances were that led to the foundation 
of the latter society, through what discouragements and 
obstructions it forced its way onward, and what success was 
at last achieved, will be described in the biographic sketch 
of Broca which will be presently attempted. 

The time was ripe for the undertaking. The society was 
established in 1859, (d,) and in the years immediately pre¬ 
ceding rapid advances had been made in the various 
branches of knowledge which constitute anthropology. In 
England, Davis and Thurnam had begun their great work, 
the Crania Britannica; in Sweden, Retzius was carrying on 
his remarkable studies in craniology; Morton, of Philadel¬ 
phia, having amassed the collection of skulls which was, 
tor many years, the richest craniological collection in the 
world, had produced his important work, the Crania Amer¬ 
icana. Boucher de Perthes, after eighteen years of labor in 
the quaternary deposits of Abbeville, had at last triumphed 
over ridicule and malice, and had seen his proofs of the 
great antiquity of man accepted by the leading pakeontol- 
ogists of the world. In Denmark, the Kitchen-middens, 


6 


SATURDAY LECTURES. 


those silent chronological records of the devouring appetite 
and progressive luxury of primeval man, had been explored 
and described by Worsaae and Thomsen. In Switzerland, 
the unusual subsidence of the waters of the lakes had 
brought to light the relics of the lake-dwellers; and, not 
less memorable, on the 24th November, 1859, there appeared 
in London a modest looking volume which has probably 
exerted more influence on scientific workers than any one 
book ever published—its t'itle was : The Origin of Species, 
by Charles Darwin. 

Prof. Huxley, speaking of this occurrence twenty years 
later, said: 

“It was only subsequent to the publication of the ideas 
contained in that book that one of the most powerful in¬ 
struments for the advance of anthropological knowledge— 
namely, the Anthropological Society of Paris—was found¬ 
ed ; afterward, the Anthropological Institute of this country 
and the great Anthropological Society of Berlin came 
into existence, until it may be said that, now, there is 
not a branch of science which is represented by a larger or 
more active body of workers than the science of anthropol¬ 
ogy. But the whole of these workers are engaged, more or 
less intentionally, in providing the data for attacking the 
ultimate great problem, whether the ideas which Darwin has 
put forward, in regard to the animal world, are capable of 
being applied in the same sense, and to the same extent, to 
man. That question, I need not say, is not answered.” 

It may seem almost superfluous to explain the allusion to 
the lake-dwellings and the kitchen-middens, but some of 
the younger members of this audience may be glad to learn 
what is meant by those terms. 

In Switzerland the winters of 1853 and 1854 proved to be 
so dry and cold that the usual spring freshets in the rivers 
were wanting, and the level of the water in the great lakes 
was lower than had ever before been recorded. Accident 
led to the discovery of some ancient piles, and other evi¬ 
dences of man’s work. The result of long-continued inves¬ 
tigations may be briefly stated, as follows: The Pfahlbauten, 
or pile-works of Switzerland, were villages built on piles 


PAUL BROCA. 


driven into the water on the edges of the lakes. They com¬ 
municated with the land by one or more bridges, and there 
is no doubt that defence against wild animals as well as 
human enemies was the motive for this method of erecting 
habitations. The debris of the household necessarily fell 
into the water, together with tools, weapons and ornaments, 
and thousands of such articles have been recovered from the 
soil of the lakes around these piles, together with the bones 
of animals which had served for food. The larger number 
of these pile-works were erected during the stone age, before 
the use of metal was known to man; but in Western 
Switzerland the remains belong to the bronze age, vast 
numbers of bronze implements and ornaments having been 
recovered from them. From one settlement alone 500 
bronze hair-pins', such as peasant women adorn their hair 
with, were obtained. Troyon has made an estimate of the 
population of these lake-dwellings; his figures are 32,000 
for the stone age ; and 42,000 for the bronze period. The 
addition to our knowledge of pre-historic man obtained 
from these Pfahlbauten has been of incalculable value. 

Accident, in like manner, drew attention to the real im¬ 
port of certain shell-heaps in Denmark. They had been 
regarded as raised beaches, the results of upheaval ; but 
with such an origin the shell-fish must necessarily have been 
of kinds which would live together. They would be of all 
sizes, and would be mixed with sand and gravel. In the 
shell-heaps — now known as kitchen-middens, from the 
Danish Kjokkenmodding, kitchen-refuse heaps—the shells 
are nearly all of full-grown individuals, and of kinds which 
do not live together, and no sand or gravel was found in 
them. Flint implements and bones of animals, birds and 
fishes abound in them, and it became evident that these 
shell-heaps had been sites of villages of neolithic man, and 
that the shells and other remains had accumulated in con¬ 
sequence. Results as interesting as those obtained from the 
exploration of the lake-dwellings followed, and the museums 
of Copenhagen are rich with the spoils of the kitchen-mid- 
% dens. Similar shell-heaps have been found in almost all 
countries. 


8 


SATURDAY LECTURES. 


It was under the auspices thus outlined that the Society 
of Anthropology of Paris began its career. Its success was 
assured as the quality of its work became known, and within 
ten years, in all the chief kingdoms of Europe, societies ol 
like purpose were organized, and are in the full tide of 
prosperity and active occupation at the present day. 

And here it may be well to explain why the term “ ethnol¬ 
ogy” has been so generally superseded by the term “an¬ 
thropology.” The former, as you are aware, is the science 
which treats of the races of men. Linnaeus and BufFon 
were its chief founders, but Blumenbach moulded it into 
the shape which it yet preserves. It is to him that we owe 
the five divisions of the human race which still maintain 
their place in our school-books, though they have long since 
been discarded from scientific description. Ethnology 
classifies mankind according to certain resemblances of 
features, color, hair, dress, weapons, and the like ; anthropol¬ 
ogy takes his anatomical structure as the basis of comparison. 
Broca, speaking of the two, says: “ Ethnologists regard man 
as the primitive element of tribes, races, and peoples. 
The anthropologist looks at him as a member of the fauna 
of the globe, belonging to a zoological classification, and 
subject to the same laws as the rest of the animal kingdom. 
To study him from the last point of view only would be to 
lose sight of some of his most interesting and practical re¬ 
lations ; but to be confined to the ethnologist’s views is to 
set aside the scientific rule which requires us to proceed 
from the simple to the compound, from the known to the 
unknown, from the material and organic fact to the functional 
phenomena.” 

You were told in a preceding lecture that ten distinct 
sciences were included under the name of anthropology; 
ethnology, much shorn of its significance, being one of them. 
You will see then that the more comprehensive term was 
necessary to indicate the scope of the investigations pursued. 

I propose next to give you a succinct account of the 
societies which were founded after the model of the Paris 
association. 


PAUL BROCA. 


9 


In 1861, Rudolph Wagner of Gottingen and DeBaer of 
St. Petersburgli organized a German Anthropological Asso¬ 
ciation, (e,) which was to meet every second year in a 
German city. Its first meeting was held at Gottingen, but 
the death of Wagner, which took place soon after, interrupted 
its further progress. 

In 1863, arose the Anthropological Society of London (/.) 
It was formed by the secession of a large number of mem¬ 
bers of the Ethnological Society, and speedily became so 
successful that it at one time numbered 800 members. It 
continued to exist under its original title until 1871, when 
the Ethnological Society consented to unite itself with its 
ambitious offspring and the designation assumed by the 
united associations was: The Anthropological Institute of 
Great Britain and Ireland (g.) The Ethnological Society 
published 13 volumes of Transactions; the Anthropological 
Society published 9 volumes, and the Journal of the An¬ 
thropological Institute has now entered on its twelfth year. 

In 1865, the Anthropological Society of Madrid ( h ) was 
established, its first meeting being held on December 17. 
Owing to political complications, so common in that un- 
happy country, and to the opposition of the priesthood, no 
further meetings were permitted, and the Society, which 
had attained a membership of 300, continued in a languish¬ 
ing condition until February, 1869, when its second meeting 
took place. 

In Moscow, in 1866, the Society of the Friends of Nature 
(i) established a section of anthropology. Endowed with 
ample revenues this section has been as efficient as if it had 
been an independent society. It possesses a valuable museum 
and, in 1867, a brilliant exposition of anthropology took 
place under its management. 

In 1868, the Berlin Society of Anthropology (k) was or¬ 
ganized and speedily attained foremost rank from the im¬ 
portance and extent of its investigations. Virchow, the 
illustrious physiologist, statesman and scholar, still presides 
over its meetings. The Society publishes the Journal of 
Ethnology. 

2 


10 


SATURDAY LECTURES. 


Iii 1870, the Anthropological Society of Vienna (Z) was 
founded, and at their first meeting, February 13, the open¬ 
ing address was delivered by Rokitansky. The Society 
publishes its own transactions. 

Italy was next to continue the good work, and, in 1871, 
was established the Italian Society of Anthropology and Eth¬ 
nology (m.) Their transactions are reported in the Archives 
of Anthropology and Ethnology, a monthly journal, hand¬ 
somely illustrated, which is published at Florence under the 
editorship of Mantegazza. 

In 1871, in the city of New York, there was founded a 
society known as the Anthropological Institute of New 
York (ft.) Its sole work was the publication of its Journal, 
“ Whom the Gods love, die young,” says the Greek proverb: 
the “ Journal of the Anthropological Institute of New York” 
must have been the especial object of celestial regard as it 
expired with its first number. 

In 1877, Poland entered the field, and the Academy of 
Sciences of Cracow (o) established a section of anthropology 
which publishes its own journal. 

In 1879, the Anthropological Society of Washington, D. 
C., (p,) was founded, and has continued to thrive. 

During the present year, Dr. Aurele de Torok, of Hun¬ 
gary, who had been for some time studying at the Paris 
school, was placed in charge of a section of anthropology in 
the University of Buda-Pesth, with instructions to form a 
museum. 

There are many subordinate societies besides those de¬ 
scribed; they are generally affiliated with the societies of 
the capitals. For example, theje is an Anthropological 
Society at Liverpool, another at Oxford, another at Man¬ 
chester ; one at Lyons, one at Bordeaux, and even in the 
Isle of Man there is a section of anthropology in the Manx 
Society of Sciences. 

Another important result of the interest felt in these pur¬ 
suits has been the organizing of congresses of anthropol¬ 
ogy, meeting in different cities at stated intervals. 

There is the German Association for Anthropology (g) 


PAUL BROCA. 


11 


founded in 1870; their first meeting was held in Berlin, and 
their transactions appear in a goodly quarto, the Archives 
for Anthropology, published at Brunswick. 

But the most important congress, in view of its achieve¬ 
ments, is the International Congress of Anthropology, and 
Pre-historic Archseology (r.) Their first meeting was held 
at Neufchatel in 1866; the second at Paris in 1867; the 
third at Norwich, England, in 1868; the fourth at Copen¬ 
hagen in 1869; the fifth at Bologna in 1871; the sixth at 
Brussels in 1872; the seventh at Stockholm in 1874; the 
eighth at Buda-Pesth in 1876; and the ninth at Lisbon in 
1880. I believe the next meeting is to he held at Venice 
this year. The transactions of this association are published 
after each congress. 

Finally, it must be added that the British Association for 
the Advancement of Science, after much contention, has 
established a section of anthropology. The French Asso¬ 
ciation of the same name began with such a section as part 
of its original organization. 

I have no doubt that my hearers are reasonably grateful 
that this dry enumeration of societies and their productions 
has come to an end; but it has been shown that all of these 
associations, congresses and sections owe their origin to the 
Paris School of Anthropology, and as that school, in its 
turn, derived its very existence from the genius and energy 
of one man, we are brought naturally to the point where a 
sketch of the life and work of the founder of European an¬ 
thropology comes properly into our plan. 

Pierre Paul Broca was born at Sainte Foix-la-Grande, in 
1824. The town which announces itself to the world under 
this pretentious title is situated in the department of the 
Gironde, on the bank of the Dordogne, forty miles from 
Bordeaux, and contains about 4,000 inhabitants. It was 
the birthplace also of Gratiolet, distinguished, like Broca, 
in anthropology as well as in medicine. 

It is always interesting, and, indeed, essential to the due 
estimation of a distinguished man, to state what may be 


12 


SATURDAY LECTURES. 


known of his parentage, and of what it is now the fashion 
to call his early environments. 

Broca’s father, Dr. Benjamin Broca, was an army surgeon, 
and had served throughout the memorable war in Spain 
under the first Napoleon. The campaigns over, he returned 
to his native town where he married and settled down to 
practice his profession. He was a man of marked traits of 
character ; of unflinching probity and courage, and charit¬ 
able to an extreme. From him his son derived his taste for 
the natural sciences as well as a grave irony which charac¬ 
terized them both The son used to quote an ironical re¬ 
mark of his father’s which is amusing enough to be related. 
The elder Broca flourished in the time when the doctrines 
of Broussais attained such astonishing popularity, and 
blood-letting and rigorous diet were the treatment in vogue. 
Against these views,* Dr. Broca fought valiantly, and it is 
told of him that after a consultation over a patient prostra¬ 
ted with typhoid fever, hearing the physician in charge 
prescribe, as the only nutriment, a broth to be made of frog’s 
feet, Broca turned back from the doorway and said, “ and 
above all things, be sure to skim off the fat! ” 

Dr. Broca, senior, acquired a large country practice, but 
which was not very lucrative, for his rule was to charge the 
rich but little, while to the poor he gave his services and 
paid for their medicines. When, in later years, after the 
death of his wife, he removed to Paris to reside in the house 
of his distinguished son, the whole country round was in 
sorrow for his loss, and his indigent clientage presented him 
with a silver-gilt cup inscribed “To the physician of the 
poor.” 

An amusing story is still told in Sainte-Foix of this 
excellent man which exemplifies his unfailing benevolence. 
At a late hour, one cold and dark winter night, a peasant 
requested him to visit a person taken seriously ill, in a 
distant hamlet. The good doctor left his comfortable fire¬ 
side without hesitation and accompanied the man along a 
lonely pathway, inaccessible to all but pedestrians. Arriv¬ 
ing, at length, at a small cluster of cottages, the man turned 


PAUL BROCA. 


13 


to him and said, “Many thanks, doctor. You see I was 
afraid to come along these lonely beaches by myself, in the 
middle of the night, so I ihvented the little story of the 
sick person to get you to come with me; much obliged for 
your company.” And the fellow disappeared in the dark¬ 
ness, leaving the doctor to return as best he could. 

I have been told by Dr. Ford Thompson of this city that 
when in Paris attending the clinique under Professor Broca 
at the hospital of La Pitie, he was struck with the appear¬ 
ance of an aged gentleman who, with edifying punctuality, 
formed one of the large class which followed the professor 
through the wards. This venerable man would listen with 
equal interest and admiration to the luminous explanations, 
the subtle diagnosis, or the fecund illustrations which the 
accomplished surgeon would give utterance to, at the bedside- 
This was Dr. Broca, the father, finding his chief enjoyment, 
in the evening of his days, in watching the daily work of 
the son who had so far outstripped him in fame. 

Broca’s mother was the daughter of a Protestant preacher, 
named Thomas. She was an excellent woman, of great 
intelligence, and endowed with a prodigious memory. This 
latter quality was inherited by her son. The Brocas were 
of old Huguenot stock, and traditions were rife among them 
of the persecutions which the grandfather and great-grand¬ 
father had suffered in the days of the dragonnades. 

There is no doubt that his early training by the kind, 
manly father and the clear-sighted sensible mother, together 
Avith the traditions of their family history, bred in the young 
Paul the courageous loA^e of truth and hatred of injustice 
and oppression which marked his entire career. 

In 1832, he entered the college of Sainte-Foix which was, 
at that time, the resort of the £lite of the Protestant youth 
of France. Some of the most distinguished men of the 
reformed church Avere educated at Sainte-Foix; among Avhom 
Avere Monod, Coquerel, and Pressense. When seventeen 
years old, Paul Broca obtained the three diplomas of bache¬ 
lor of letters, mathematics, and physical sciences. In 1842, 
he presented himself for examination at the Polytechnic 


14 


SATURDAY LECTURES. 


School, intending to make physical sciences the basis of his 
future work, hut his father, loth to see his own jiractice lost 
to the family, persuaded his son to adopt medicine as his 
profession. An additional motive for his compliance was 
the recent death of his only sister, a very lovely girl of great 
promise, whose loss made the parental home very lonely. 
Broca did not trouble himself about his career; he used .to 
say, in after life, that in any occupation, he could have 
made such a place as his abilities merited; and with his 
healthy organization and unparalleled capacity for work, it 
is probable that he was right. 

He went to Paris, and entered his name at the Faculty of 
Medicine, and thus began a career unequalled for the rapidity 
of its progress. In 1843, he became an externe at the 
hospitals, and in 1844, he became an interne. He was then 
twenty years of age, a period at which most students of 
medicine have only entered themselves. In 1848, he became 
prosector of anatomy, and obtained the silver medal of the 
Public Assistance. He graduated as Doctor of Medicine in 
1849; the Academy of Medicine decreed him the Portal 
prize in 1850, and, in 1853, he was named Assistant Prof- 
fessor of the Faculty of Medicine, and Surgeon of the 
Central Bureau, being then only twenty-nine years old. 

In 1847, he was elected a member of the Anatomical 
Society of Paris, and for many years he was the most active 
of the distinguished young men who raised that society to 
its present pre-eminence. His researches into the histology 
of cartilage and bone, with the aid of the microscope, of 
the use of which in anatomical researches he was one of 
the strongest advocates, have remained unsurpassed of their 
kind to the present day. 

In the Society of Surgery he was equally active, and its 
transactions bear witness to his zealous labors. 

It is not within the scope of this lecture to describe his 
surgical or physiological work; the general result, in the 
number of his productions, will be given at the close. It 
must be said, however, that his brilliant investigations into 
the localities of the functions of the brain led the way to 


PAUL BROCA. 


15 


the discoveries and applications of Hitzig, Ferrier, and 
Charcot; of his larger works, the Treatise on Tumors, and 
the Treatise on Aneurisms, still hold foremost rank. Broca’s 
devotion to anthropological studies, during the last twenty 
years of his life, have tended to overshadow his work in 
surgery and physiology. A good judge said of him, that in 
no country or age had any man of thirty produced so much 
of value in surgery as he. 

He was associated with Beau and Bonamy in the pro¬ 
duction of their splendid Atlas of Descriptive Anatomy, 
and the third volume of that work, comprising splanchnol¬ 
ogy, is entirely his work. 

It is scarcely necessary to say that this brilliant com¬ 
mencement of his career soon settled the question of his 
return to the banks of the Dordogne. The father was 
proud of his son’s success, and the good mother, when told 
of his achievements, sacrificed her own wishes, as mothers 
do, and said, “my pride is gratified, but not my heart.” 

Honors continued to flow in upon him. He was made 
secretary and then vice-president of the Anatomical Society; 
secretary and then president of the Society of Surgery. The 
Academy of Medicine admitted him in 1866; he was their 
vice-president in 1880, and president-elect for 1881. In 
1867, the Faculty of Medicine appointed him to the chair 
of pathology which he exchanged for that of clinical sur¬ 
gery. 

It remains now to speak of Broca’s connection with the 
Society of Anthropology of Paris. He was its founder and, 
in the words of one of his panegyrists, “the very soul of it 
for one and twenty years.” 

In 1847, he was one of a commission appointed to ex¬ 
amine the bones discovered in excavations made in the 
ancient church of the Celestins. In drawing up this re¬ 
port, (which was afterwards published in the first volume 
of his Memoirs on Anthropology,) he was led to read all the 
books he could find, and they were not many, upon the sub¬ 
ject of craniology. In those days ethnology was confined 
to a narrow circle of inquiry, chiefly to debates upon mon- 


SATURDAY LUCTURKS. 


1(3 

ogeny and polygeny, or the doctrine of the origin of the 
human race from one source or from many. The Ethno¬ 
logical Society of Paris, founded, as I have before stated, 
by William Edwards, having ended its discussions upon 
this subject, and finding nothing more to say, itself came 
to an end in 1848. Ten years later, Broca, who had arrived 
at some conclusions upon human hybridity which lie de¬ 
sired to make known, communicated them to the Society of 
Biology. But the young discoverer had yet to learn what 
pusillanimity could do to retard investigation. His re¬ 
markable memoir demonstrated the unlimited fecundity of 
human hybrids, and as this was opposed to the doctrines of 
the monogenists, Rayer, the President of the Society, re¬ 
quested Broca to desist from further communications. The 
memoir “ On animal hybridity in general, and on human 
hybridity in particular,” was published in the Journal de 
la physiologie. It was afterward translated by Dr. Carter 
Blake for the London Society of Anthropology, and was 
published in their memoirs. This condition of things made 
it evident that a new society was needed, and Broca con¬ 
ceived the idea of a Society of Anthropology. 

Broca’s plan was to start with not less than twenty mem¬ 
bers. Six from the Society of Biology joined him, but 
others, including the members of the defunct Society of 
Ethnology, turned a’deaf ear to his solicitations. After a 
year’s efforts, he had only nineteen signatures, including his 
own. He met with every obstacle from those in authority; 
M. Rouland, the Minister of Public Instruction, sent him to 
the Prefect of Police, who, in turn, sent him to the Minister 
of Public Instruction. Their purpose was to weary him 
out, for with the perspicacity usual in such functionaries, 
they firmly believed that the novel term, anthropology, 
covered some form of political conspiracy. Finally, thanks 
to the intervention of Professor Tardieu, a chief of division of 
the prefecture of police was induced to authorize the nineteen 
to form their society and hold meetings. He held Broca, 
however, personally responsible for anything which might 
be said by his associates which should appear to be an 


PAUL BROCA. 


17 


attack upon government, religion, or social order; and, to 
ensure the realization of these prudent precautions, he 
directed that a police officer, in plain clothes, should attend, 
each meeting and report to the prefect the tenure of the 
proceedings. 

Does not this sound as if we were discoursing of some¬ 
thing that took place under Louis quatorze, or Philip the 
second? And yet it occurred in our own day, some twenty 
years ago, in the most civilized city of Paris. We are ac¬ 
customed to look upon our own absolute freedom in such 
affairs as a matter of course, but it may not be unprofitable 
to occasionally stop to consider it in the light of comparison. 

It was under the conditions described that the Society of 
Anthropology of Paris held its first meeting, on the 19th 
May, 1859. The word anthropology was substituted for 
ethnology to show the far wider scope proposed. It in¬ 
cluded, in effect, the entire natural history of the human 
race, whether in the present, in the past, in its general char¬ 
acters, in its subdivisions into races or varieties, in its origin, 
or in its relations with the rest of nature. • This programme 
comprehended not only ethnology, or the study of human 
races, but anthropology, or the study of mankind. It in¬ 
cluded, also, a great number of auxiliary sciences: zoology, 
comparative anatomy, geology, palaeontology, prehistoric 
and protoliistoric archaeology, linguistics, mythology, his¬ 
tory, psychology, and medicine itself. And as among all 
these diverse and divergent studies it was necessary to es¬ 
tablish some central basis, the founders of the society, who 
were all young physicians, determined, in accordance with 
the views of their leader, to select that which is most fixed 
in man, namely, his organization and functions; in a word, 
his anatomy and physiology. 

With such a vast field before it, there was no reason to 
fear that the new society would perish for want of susten¬ 
ance like its predecessor, the Society of Ethnology. As its 
programme became known, new members eagerly joined it, 
and when the first volume of its bulletins was published, 
the defiance and distrust which it had excited rapidly sub- 


18 


SATURDAY LECTURES. 


sided. M. Rouland, the Minister of Public Instruction 
deigned to authorize it in 1861, and, in 1864, it was recog¬ 
nized formally as a society of public utility, by a decree of 
the Council of State. After this date, the attendance of the 
special police agent at its meetings was discontinued. 

During the first three years of the existence of the society? 
Broca filled the office of secretary. It was a burdensome 
task for a man of his numerous avocations to undertake, 
but it was of the highest importance that the transactions 
of the young society should be edited with talent and ap¬ 
pear with punctualhy. He excelled in the difficult art'of 
giving the integral meaning, but without prolixity, of what 
was said in the ardor of debate. He was skillful in ignor¬ 
ing the common-places of the chronic speaker; the man 
who always “ rises to give his views,” though he has gene¬ 
rally nothing to communicate. These comptes rendus are 
master-pieces of their kind, especially when it is considered 
that they were written from memory, for he took too active 
a part in discussion to have time to take notes. 

In 1863, the increase of the Society made it necessary to 
appoint a General Secretary, electable for three years; Broca 
held the office till his death. Professor Pozzi says, “ Broca 
was the soul of the Society of Anthropology. It was he 
who founded it, he who made it live through its first trying 
years, and that by the preponderating influence of his 
incessant labor and the communicable ardor of his love for 
the growing science. The powerful influence of Broca, 
especially visible at the beginning of its career, was not less 
real to the very close, in spite of the care which he took to 
avoid the appearance of personal control. Even when he 
abstained from taking part in any irritating debate, his 
attitude, the few words which might escape him, his vote, 
infallibly indicated to doubting minds, upon which side 
reason, moderation, and justice were to be found.” 

Upon the establisment of his Society, Broca began a 
craniological collection and, thanks to the surgeons of the 
navy, with whom he kept up an active correspondence, it 
soon attained respectable dimensions. Nevertheless, a 


PAUL BROCA. 


19 

museum cannot be well maintained without a laboratory, 
and the difficulties in the way of obtaining the latter were 
very great, for the law forbade the taking subjects for 
dissection anywhere except to the rooms of the Faculty of 
Medicine. In 1867, however, Broca was nominated as one 
of the professors of the Faculty of Medicine and the diffi¬ 
culty was solved. He was entitled to a laboratory for his 
personal investigations, and two small rooms were assigned 
him for the purpose. It was here, with M. Hamy for his 
assistant, that he began his researches in the comparative 
anatomy of the primates. It was here, too, that he invented 
many ingenious instruments to be employed in craniometry, 
or the measurement of the skull. In connection with this 
especial work of Broca’s, it may be well to give some ex¬ 
planation of what constitutes craniometry, without doubt, 
the most important part of our laboratory work. Crani¬ 
ometry comprises measurements of the dry skull, both its 
external and internal surfaces, its various angles, its relation 
to the spinal column, its internal capacity and the propor¬ 
tion and weight of the brain; external measurements are 
to be made, whenever possible, in the living person also. 
Moreover, these measurements, to be of value, must be made 
in large numbers, so that the average, or mean, may be 
trustworthy. To obtain these dimensions, many complicated 
and costly instruments have been invented, the greater 
number of those now in use having been devised by Broca. 
I had intended to bring some of these instruments here in 
order to give you an illustration of the manner in which 
they are used but I found that it would occupy more time 
than we can spare. I shall read you the names of Broca’s 
craniometric inventions. 

In 1860, he invented the craniograph; an instrument for 
giving the profile of the skull. 

In 1864, the new goniometer. The instrument in use, for 
many years, for taking the facial angle was the one invented 
by Dr. Morton of Philadelphia ; Jacquart made a vastly im¬ 
proved instrument, but Broca’s goniometer had the merit of 
simplicity and cheapness. 


20 


SATURDAY LECTURES. 


In 1867, lie produced the stereograph. 

In 1869, the cadre a maxima and the micrometric compass. 

In 1870, he invented the occipital goniometer , an instru¬ 
ment for ascertaining the angle of the back of the skull. 

In 1873, he brought to perfection a surprising number of 
instruments mostly for the investigation of the endocranium , 
or interior of the skull. A perplexing obstacle in the pur¬ 
suit of craniology was the difficulty, or rather, impossibil¬ 
ity, of obtaining measurements of the interior without saw¬ 
ing open the cranium. This would spoil the specimen and 
could not, of course, be permitted. The instruments about 
to be mentioned were to be introduced through the occipital 
foramen, the large aperture in the base of the skull. 

The cranioscope enabled a bright light to be thrown upon 
the interior of the skull by means of a mirror and lamp. 

The porte-empreinte intra-cranien, or intra-cranial molder, 
is an instrument charged with a piece of wax by which a 
mold can be obtained of various portions of the interior. 

The endograph is an ingenious contrivance for tracing on 
paper the curvatures and outlines of the endocranium for 
comparison with the external surface. 

The millimetric roulette is a small wheel, graduated in 
millimetres, for measuring the curved outlines on tracings. 

The endometer is an instrument for measuring internal 
diameters. 

He invented, also, the sphenoidal crochet and optic sound; 
the pachymeter, an instrument for measuring the thickness 
of the skull at any point; the turcica crochet; the acoustic 
sounds; the craniophore; the craniostat; the facial demi-go- 
niometer; the auricular goniometer; the flexible bi-auricular 
square; the cyclometer; the facial median goniometer; the 
orthogon; ihe flexible goniometer; the goniometer of inclination; 
and the troporneter for measuring the degree of torsion, or 
twisting, of the humerus, or arm bone, a racial characteristic 
of importance. 

I fear this list of names has been rather tedious, but it is 
not only pertinent to the subject as illustrating Broca’s 
mechanical ingenuity, but it may enable those present who 


PAUL BROCA. 


21 


have no special acquaintance with craniology to form some 
conception of the immense and intricate labor involved in 
accurate measurements of the skull. Professor Huxley, 
speaking of these elaborate instruments, says, “ One can 
not mention the name of Broca without the greatest 
gratitude.” 

This, then, was the beginning of the Laboratory of An¬ 
thropology. In 1868, the Minister of Public Instruction, 
M. Duruy, conceived the happy thought of establishing 
the practical school of high studies— L’ecole pratique des 
hautes etudes —by giving an annual allowance and an offi¬ 
cial character to the various laboratories connected with in¬ 
stitutions of learning. Broca’s laboratoiy was included. 
He at once instituted a system of teaching which attracted 
so large a class that he was obliged to ask the dean for per¬ 
mission to use a larger theatre. 

The progress of the school was interrupted by the Franco- 
German war of 1870-1. Broca was, at that time, professor 
of clinical surgery at the hospital of La Pitie, which was 
from the very beginning of the siege of Paris crowded with 
wounded men. To these and to the care of the hospital he 
devoted himself exclusively, and his laboratory was for¬ 
saken. He had been one of the three directors appointed 
to take charge of the Public Assistance. During the days 
of the Commune, for which, as sterling republican and 
patriot, he had a supreme detestation, he remained at his 
post in Paris, taking care of the patients still in his hos¬ 
pital, but busying himself in taking plaster-casts of brains, 
thus beginning the superb collection of cerebral molds which 
is now to be seen in the Musee Broca. The President of the 
Council of Public Assistance fled to Versailles without no¬ 
tifying Broca, who was the vice-president, and leaving the 
money and securities in charge of the cashier. The danger 
of a seizure of these valuables by the communists was im¬ 
minent, and Broca determined to save them, if possible. 
He, himself, carried them away, night after night, in carpet¬ 
bags, and concealed them at the hospital of La Charite, by 
the aid of the director. He was careful to leave three or 


22 


SATURDAY LECTURES. 


four thousand francs in the safe, and, much to the disap¬ 
pointment of the insurgents, this was all that they found 
when, a da}^ or two later, the} r made the anticipated raid. 
Apprehensive that the treasure might, in some way, be 
traced, Broca devised a bold scheme for its removal to Ver¬ 
sailles. A wagon loaded with potatoes started for the hos¬ 
pital of Ivry with the precious carpet-bags concealed under¬ 
neath them, and as soon as it had safely passed the outmost 
guard, the wagon was turned toward Versailles, which it 
reached in safety, and the bags were duly delivered to the 
over-prudent president. The amount thus saved to the 
government by Broca’s firmness was seventy-five millions 
of francs, ($15,000,000.) After the victory and the return 
to Paris, the directory of the Public Assistance was dis¬ 
solved, and not even a vote of thanks was.offered for this 
eminent service. 

Broca was not the man to trouble himself about com¬ 
pliments. He had done his duty and now all his energies 
were devoted to bringing forward his beloved science. He 
founded the Revue d’anthropologie, the first number of which 
appeared in 1872, and this journal he continued to edit as 
long as he lived. His next undertaking was to establish a 
School of Anthropology, and so irresistible were the ardor 
and persuasion he brought to bear that in May, 1875, the 
Dean of the Faculty assigned him the second story over the 
Musee Dupuytren for the new school. For the purpose of 
furnishing and starting it, the sum of thirty-five thousand 
francs was subscribed by twenty-three members of the so¬ 
ciety. The work was commenced in July and completed in 
the following spring. The new school, however, was not to 
escape its share of opposition. The clerical party denounced 
the project without ceasing, branding its professors as 
atheists and materialists, and so thoroughly did they succeed 
in alarming the Minister of Public Instruction that that 
functionary was, with great difficulty, persuaded to author¬ 
ize the school to proceed; when he, at last, did so, it was 
only for a year, and every difficulty and discouragement 
was thrown in the way. 


PAUL BftOCA. 


23 


Broca persevered through it all and, on the 15th Decem¬ 
ber, 1876, the School of Anthropology was opened by him 
with a discourse entitled “ The Programme of Anthropologjq” 
which has been translated into many languages. “It was,” 
says Pozzi, “ an eloquent plea pro domo sud ” and certainly 
it was his own edifice, the school which he opened that day. 
Unlike most institutions in France, it had been established 
without the aid of the government, and by the personal 
efforts of the founder alone. Some time later, so brilliant 
was the success of the new school, the Municipal Council of 
Paris, and the Council-General of the Seine, spontaneously 
allotted it an annual subsidy of twelve thousand francs. 

Still the ministry maintained its old position of distrust 
and almost hostility. Every year, it was necessary to apply 
for a new authorization which it required renewed efforts 
and influence to obtain. It was even then granted only for 
another year, and individually; that is to say, each professor 
was authorized, by name, to teach, but they were forbidden 
to call themselves a school, as indicating their solidarity. 
At length, the election of 1878 consolidated the republic 
and placed all institutions, contending for progress, in their 
rightful position. The School of Anthropology was duly 
and permanently authorized. Further, the Chambers voted 
it an annual subsidy of twenty thousand francs, which 
joined to its other resources, raised its annual income to 
thirty-four thousand francs, or nearly $7,000. 

The Society of Anthropology, the Laboratory and the 
School, all united in the same locality, formed, thus, a con¬ 
federation known as the Anthropological Institute. The 
students from the school were admitted to the laboratory, 
where measurements and dissections were made under the 
direction of Paul Topinard, assistant director, and of Chud- 
zinski and Kuhff, curators. In the neighborhood is the 
important library of the Society, and the finest anthropo¬ 
logical museum in the world. Since the death of its founder, 
it has been appropriately named La Musee Broca. 

It may be imagined with what satisfaction Broca wit¬ 
nessed the completion of his labors to establish his favorite 


24 


SATURDAY LECTURES. 


science oil a permanent basis. Of his own work in Anthro¬ 
pology, it is impossible, in the limits of a lecture, to give any 
adequate account. His friend, Professor Pozzi, has attended 
a bibliography of his writings which he admits to be im¬ 
perfect, and which yet covers seventeen pages, in double 
columns of small type of the Pevue d’anthropologie, which 
is a large octavo in size. I have been able to add some few 
articles to Pozzi’s list, and, of the whole, have made the fol¬ 
lowing enumeration: 

Broca’s contributions to the medical sciences, embracing 
anatomy and physiology, both normal and pathological, and 
surgery, number 243 articles and volumes. His papers on 
the anatomy and functions of the brain are 53 in number. 
His last and most important work on this subject, a treatise 
on the morphology of the brain, was left unfinished. 

In anthropology, I find 409 articles and volumes upon 
comparative anatomy and general anthropology ; 48 papers 
on general craniology, and 35 on special craniology; 27 
papers on ethnology, and 19 on miscellaneous subjects. 
The total number of his printed articles and volumes, so 
far as ascertained, is 534. It is to be remembered that a 
large part of these papers are quite extensive, running 
through several numbers of the journals in which they ap¬ 
peared. Many of them were reprinted in pamphlet form, 
and he, himself, commenced a collection of his anthropo¬ 
logical memoirs, of which three large volumes were pub¬ 
lished. Among the more important of these contributions 
may be mentioned his paper on Linguistics and Anthro¬ 
pology ; his General Instructions for Observations on An¬ 
thropology. This last was a codification of the rules neces¬ 
sary to be observed by travelers and investigators; it was 
issued in 1865, and was completed ten years later by the 
Instructions in Craniology and Craniometry. This very 
valuable and original work had immense success, and was 
translated into nearly every modern language. Of his 
writings on the brain, the more important are his memoir 
upon cranio-cerebral topography ; on the great limbic lobe; 
on the olfactory centres, and his admirable treatise on cer- 


PAUL BROCA. 


2o 

ebral nomenclature. One of his discoveries in this con¬ 
nection is associated permanently with his name. Certain 
patients who preserve the memory of words, have full use 
of the larynx, mouth and lips, have yet lost the power of 
articulation. The disease is called aphemia or aphasia. 
Broca observed that in the autopsies of these patients there 
was invariably present a diseased condition of a portion of 
the third frontal convolution of the brain on the left side. 
This convolution, thus inferred to he the seat of language, 
is known as “the convolution of Broca.” In a vast number 
of cases, the prediction has been made, during life, that a 
certain portion of this convolution, the surface of its lower 
third, would be found diseased, and it has been fulfilled 
with mathematical precision. There are some exceptions 
in which the disease is found in the third convolution on the 
right side. Singularly enough, in most of these cases, it was 
found that the patients had been left-handed, and in these 
the right side of the brain is generally more developed than 
the left. The subject of the localization of the functions of 
the brain—by which we mean the discovering of the partic¬ 
ular convolutions or other portions of the brain in which re¬ 
side the functions of animal life—is of the highest interest; 
but is still to be considered as under investigation. 

When, in 1872, it was determined to found a French 
Association for the Advancement of Science, after the model 
of the English Association, Broca, took an active part in the 
organization. He was one of the provisional council of 
which Claude Bernard was the President. He established 
the section of anthropology, which has been brilliantly 
successful, the need of such a section not being denied in 
France as it had been in the English Association. 

While all this work was being done in anthropology, it 
must be borne in mind that Broca was a professor of the 
Faculty of Medicine and a Surgeon of Hospitals, and that 
his duties in these connections required some hours of every 
day for their discharge. He was an incarnation of work. 
Naturally, the question arises, what was the quality of this 
amazing quantity of work performed, and would it have 
4 


26 


SATURDAY LECTURES. 


been better for his fame if he had concentrated his energies 
upon fewer subjects ? In some persons, production i'6 a slow 
process, accompanied with extreme tension of the brain; 
the thought dwells a long time in the mind before it assumes 
the form in which it is to appear; such persons bring forth 
in sorrow and in pain. This was not Broca’s case. To 
express his thoughts with extreme rapidity, whether by 
speech or pen, was, to him, the most facile of functions. It 
seemed play rather than work. And yet, Trelat, a critical 
judge, said of him, “ Broca never wrote anything that came 
down to mediocrity.” His mind was essentially many-sided, 
of restless activity and well sustained by the admirable 
physical organization which he possessed. His intense love 
of truth and the ardor of his convictions, at times, led him 
to too great vehemence of expression. He was impatient 
with those who did not see the truth as he saw it, or did not 
see it as rapidly as he did. His work in anatomy, physiol¬ 
ogy, and surgery stands, to this day, mostly unquestioned. 
His qualifications for anthropology are forcibly stated by 
one of his pupils, Professor Ball, who says: “ Anthropology 
is a compound of so many other sciences that the interven¬ 
tion of a grasping and encyclopaedic mind like Broca’s is 
almost invaluable to form the connecting link between so 
many different branches of human knowledge. An excel¬ 
lent mathematician, a first-rate anatomist, a good Greek 
scholar, Broca combined in himself that diversified knowl¬ 
edge which the subject requires, with the synthetical ten¬ 
dencies which condense these disseminated forces, and make 
them converge upon a single point.” 

In person, Broca was of the middle height and strongly 
built. His broad forehead and lustrous brown eyes gave a 
very noble expression to his face. In private life, his re¬ 
lations were in every way admirable. Benevolent and 
generous, he was adored by his family, and those who were 
once his friends were his friends for life,—he “ grappled them 
to his soul with hooks of steel.” He was a delightful com¬ 
panion in his social hours. He had traveled much, and 
would relate his adventures and observations with great 


PAUL BROCA. 


27 


humor. I may be allowed to quote one incident which he 
loved to recount. 

While traveling in Spain he came to Seville and, desiring 
to be shaved, sent for the nearest barber. Figaro appeared 
and, knowing that his customer was a famous surgeon, re¬ 
fused to receive any recompense. “Sir^” said he, with a 
lofty air, “ that is never allowed between professional breth¬ 
ren ! ” The class of barber-surgeons exists to-day, in Spain, 
as it did when Cervantes wrote. 

The crowning public honor of Broca’s life remains to be 
told. In 1879, the Senate nominated him as permanent 
Senator, representing Science. He was proposed, of course, 
by the left. The right, or monarchical, side, made fierce op¬ 
position. He was an unyielding Republican, the founder 
of the Anthropological Institute, which meant free-think¬ 
ing and atheism. They searched his writings for doctrines 
to convict him and, with great joy, published this quotation, 
“ I would rather be an ape brought to perfection than a de¬ 
generate Adam.” But this proved to have been a saying 
of Claparede’s and not of Broca’s. A sentence was taken 
from his Programme of Anthropology, “There is no faith, 
however respectable, no interest, however legitimate, which 
must not accommodate itself to the progress of human 
knowledge and bend before truth, if the truth be demon¬ 
strated.” Even this scarcely orthodox doctrine, it seemed, 
was qualified by the preceding sentence which said that 
“science must keep aloof from anything not within its 
province.” 

Broca, with characteristic independence, took no part, 
whatever, in the proceedings, but he was elected. On the 
19th February, 1880, a banquet was given him by some of 
his most attached friends, members of the Faculty of Medi¬ 
cine, of the Academy of Medicine, of the Society of Anthro¬ 
pology, of the Senate, of the Chamber of Deputies, &c., in 
commemoration of the high honor bestowed upon him. 
II? was the grandest banquet ever given to a scientific man. 
The long table was filled with those who had shared his 
struggles and labors at different parts of his career from the 


2.8 


SATURDAY LECTURES. 


College of Sainte-Foix to the Senate. Professor Verneuil, 
his life-long friend, said to him, “If we are in'great strength 
around thee, it is because thou hast continually made new 
friends, and hast never lost a single one.” 

In his speech, of acknowledgment, Broca said, “they 
would not have thought of me if they had not known with 
what certainty they could count upon my devotion to 
republican principles; and if, among many others not less 
trustworthy and more skilled in political knowledge, they 
have chosen a man of science, it is because they hold science 
in high consideration, and believe that to serve science is to v 
serve one’s country best.” 

His speech was one of the most eloquent he had ever 
delivered, and ended with a sentence that proved strangely 
pathetic, in the light of the after occurrence. He said, “ were 
I superstitious, I should believe, from the great happiness 
I experience to-day, that some great danger was threatening 
me.” 

Five months later, these now sorrowing friends followed 
him to the grave. On Tuesday, the 6th July, 1880, he was 
in his seat at the Senate and was attacked suddenly bv 
faintness. The next day, he had apparently recovered, and 
Thursday evening was passed in work with his friend, 
pupil, colleague, and successor, Dr. Paul Topinard. Toward 
midnight, he was suddenly attacked with difficulty of 
breathing, he rose from his bed and, in ten minutes, he ex¬ 
pired. The post mortem examination discovered no lesion 
of any organ,—no cause for this sudden taking-off. “ Cere¬ 
bral exhaustion ” was the medical periphrasis, which im¬ 
plied two things;—that the man had worked himself to 
death and that how he died was a mystery. He died at the 
comparatively early age of 56, in the very plenitude of his 
powers and the height of his renown. 

He was buried in the cemetery of the old church of the 
Celestins, in which his first labors in craniology had com¬ 
menced thirty-three years before, and which led to his long 
course of studies in anthropology. The Vice-President of 
the Senate, M. Eugene Pelletan, in his oration at the grave, 


PAUL BROCA. 


29 


said, after an eloquent eulogy upon the dead, “A new science, 
human palaeontology, has just originated under our feet; 
at hundreds of ages of depth, our fore-fathers have been, in 
some way, surprised, lying pell-mell in the midst of the 
giant fauna of a vanished creation. Broca was one of the 
valiant pioneers who penetrated the foremost into the sub¬ 
terranean world of humanity, and who understood best how 
to throw light on such history as is left of it.” 

His work is continued by those who were his disciples 
and colleagues. Gavarret is the director of the School of 
Anthropology, Matthias Duval is director of the Laboratory, 
and Dr. Paul Topinard is the General Secretary of the So¬ 
ciety and director of the Revue d’anthropologie. 

The museum, now the Musee Broca, continues to increase 
its treasures; a recent number of the Review states that 
there are more than seven thousand specimens in craniology 
alone. 

Broca left an enormous quantity of notes and drawings; 
also, two quarto volumes which contain the measurements 
of crania made by him during twenty years. These are 
divided into sixty-four series of different races, and record 
more than 185,000 measurements. 

Madame Broca, his widow, has devoted a sum of money 
to found a “ Broca prize ”—le prix Broca. The subject of 
competition is “ human and comparative anatomy in relation 
to anthropology.” Writers of all nations may compete but 
their papers must be written in French. The prize is 1,500 
francs, and it is to be bestowed every two years. 

There is not much more that needs to be said of Broca 
and his work. If Europe be now garrisoned with societies 
of anthropology composed of earnest workers, loyally co¬ 
operating with the votaries of other sciences, and daily 
adding to the vast mass of facts and observations which 
have been accumulated concerning man, it is indisputable 
that it is to Broca we are indebted for their existence. Of 
his remarkable fitness for the task which it fell to him to 
undertake, there can be no doubt, but it was one predom¬ 
inating quality of his moral nature which gave him his 


30 


SATURDAY LECTURES. 


great influence over other men, and which has made his 
work so authoritative and enduring, and th'at was his un¬ 
swerving love of truth. In science, he was always the 
judge—never the advocate. Pure and loftv-minded, he 
stood aloof from intrigues, and honors came to him unsought. 
The laureate’s words may well be said of him,— 

“ Who never sold the truth to serve the hour.” 

In conclusion, allow me to remind you that there is what 
may be termed a moral side of the science whose history 
we have been considering. To spend our hours in the 
study of man—to reflect upon his marvelous metamorphosis 
from the grimy savage of the cave to the gentleman of to¬ 
day—to ponder upon his curious devices, his laws, his 
marriage-customs, his battles, his religions, is to fill our 
minds with a belief in a common brotherhood more con¬ 
vincingly than peace societies or missionaries can teach, 
and to lead us to repeat with Terence:—“ I am a man— 
therefore all human things concern me.” 


*** I desire to acknowledge my obligation to Prof. Pozzi’s article in the 
Revue d’anthropologie for much of the details of the founding of the Institute. 


PAUL P>ftOCA. 


«> 

o 


1 


NOTES. 


(a) La Societe ethnologique de Paris. (1839.) 

Publications: —Memoires de la Societe ethnologique. 2 vols., 8vo. 
Paris, 1841-5. 

Bulletin de la Societe ethnologique de Paris. Vol. I, 8vo. Paris, 1847. 

(b) The American Ethnological Society. (1842.) 

Publications : —Transactions of the American Ethnological Society. Vols. 
1, 2, 8vo. N. York, 1845; 1848. 

Bulletin of the American Ethnological Society. 8vo. N. York, i860. 
Also: The Gospels, written in the Negro patois of English, with Arabic 
characters, by a Mandingo slave in Georgia. W. B. Hodgson. 8vo., 1857, 
pp. 16. 

Report on the Huacals or ancient graveyards of Chiriqui. By J. K. Mer¬ 
ritt. 8vo., i860, pp. 14. 

(c) The. Ethnological Society of London. (1844.) 

Publications: —Journal of the Ethnological Society, 4 vols., 1848-56. 
Transactions, etc., 7 vols., 1859-69. Journal, (new series,) 2 vols., 1869-71. 
13 vols., 8vo., London, 1848-71. 

(d) La Societe d’anthropologie de Paris. (1859.) 

Publications :—Bulletins de la Societe d’anthropologie de Paris. 1st 
series, vols. 1-6, 1860-5; 2d series, vols. 1-12, 1866-77; 3d series, vols. 
* 1—5, 1878-82. 8vo., Paris. " Current. 

Memoires de la Societe d’anthropologie de Paris. 1st series, vols. 1-3, 
1860-72; 2d series, vols. 1-2, 1875-82. 8vo., Paris. 

(e) Versammlung der Anthropologen in Gottingen in 1861. 

(/) The Anthropological Society of London. (1863.) 

Publications : —The Anthropological Review and Journal of the Anthro¬ 
pological Society of London. 8 vols. , 1863-1870. Journal of Anthropol¬ 
ogy. 1 vol., 1870-1. 8vo., London. 

(g) The Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 

(1871.) 

Publications: —Journal of the Anthropological Institute, etc. 1871-82. 
8vo., London. Current. 

( h ) Sociedad de antropologia de Madrid. (1865.) 

{%) Imper. Obshestvo ljubiteli jestestwosnanya, antropologii i etno- 
grafii. Moscow. (1866.) 



SATUl\DAY tv ECTURES. 


Of) 

(k) Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Authropologie, Ethnologic unci l rge- 
schichte. (1868.) 

Publications: —Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie. Organ tier Berliner Gesell¬ 
schaft, etc. Berlin, 8vo., vols. 1-14, 1869-1882. Current. 

(/) Anthropologische Gesellschaft in Wien. (1870.) 

Publications: —Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien. 
Wien, 8vo., vols. 1-12, 1871-82. Current. 

(in) Societa italiana di antropologia e di etnologia. (1871.) 

Publications :—Archivio per l’antropologia e la etnologia. Organo della 
Societa italiana, etc. Firenze, 8vo., vols. 1-9, 1871-79. 

(n) The Anthropological Institute of New York. (1871.) 

Publications: —The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of New 
York. 1871-2, 8vo., New York, Yol. I, No. 1. 

( 0 ) Komisya antropologii Akademii Umiejetnosci w Krakowie. 
(1877.) 

Publications: —Zbior wiadmosci do antropologii Krajowej wydawany 
Staranien komisyi antropologicznej Akademii Umiejetnosci w Krakowie. 
Vols. 1-4, 8vo., Krakow, 1877-80. Current. 

(p) The Anthropological Society of Washington, D. C. (1879.) 

Publications: —Abstract of Transactions of the Anthropological Society of 
Washington, D. C., for the 1st year, ending Jan. 20, 1880, and for the 2d 
year, ending Jan. 18, 1881. 8vo. Washington, D. C., 1881. 

((/) Deutsche Gesellschaft fiir Authropologie, Ethnologie und Urge- 
schichte. (1870.) 

Publications : —Correspondenzblatt der deutschen Gesellschaft, etc. Braun¬ 
schweig, 4to, Vols. 1-12, 1871-82. Appears (with separate pagination) in 
the: Archiv. fiir Authropologie; Zeitschrift fiir Naturgeschichte und Urge- 
sehichte des Menschen. Braunschweig, 4to., Vols. 1-14. 1866-82. 

AY This society meets annually in some German city. The first meeting 
took place in Berlin in 1870. 

(r) Congres international d’anthropologie et d’archeologie prchis- 
torique. (1865.) 

Congres I. Neufchatel, 1866. Compte rendu 8vo. Paris, 1866. 

2. Paris, 1867. Compte rendu. 8vo. Paris, 1868. 

3. Norwich, 1868. Compte rendu. 8vo. London, 1869. 

4. Copenhagen, 1869. Compte rendu. 8vo. Copenhagen, 1870. 

5. Bologna, 1871. Compte rendu. 8vo. Bologna, 1873. 

6. Bruxelles, 1872. Compte rendu. 8vo. Bruxelles, 1873. 

7. Stockholm, 1874. Compte rendu. 8vo. Chalons, 1875. 

8. Buda Pesth, 1876. 

9. Lisbon, 1880. 



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